What is the MOST Difficult part of the Mental Game of Golf for you?

[marto97]

What is the most difficult aspect of the mental game of golf for you? Is it dealing with the rub of the greens? Is it trying to get over a bad shot or a bad hole? Is it trying to deal with some jerk in your foursome that’s just being a complete idiot? Is it having to deal with slow players in front of you that forgot about letting faster groups play through? Maybe you’re having the best round of your life and the pressure of keeping it going is getting to you (you’re starting to think about how good your score could be). What is it folks, what throws you for a loop?


For me it’s the jerk! I’ve learned how to deal with almost everything else except for the jerk. It’s something you have no control over. In a recent tournament I played, I had a jerk in my foursome in the first round. He was having a bad day and as the day wore on he got worse and worse. On the greens if he missed a short putt he would stick handle the ball until it went into the hole, (I know he didn’t count all his strokes, neither did his scorer) on one hole he actually kicked the ball into the hole (he should’ve been DQ-ed right there). On a 162 yard par 3 he took out his driver, after he shot I asked him what he was doing? His answer was he was trying to SKIP the ball off the water onto the green! Anyway to make a long painful story short, his antics wore on me and had an effect on my round.



So What is it about the mental game of golf that gives you a difficult time?

[golf_junkie27]

It used to be a miriad of things that bothered me: Guys playing from tees they had no business being on. Lining up four foot putts for triple bogey, etc. However, the two that stand out are slow play and poor etiquette . In my experience, these usually go hand in hand and drive me nuts. I just can't stand to watch people not play ready golf and absolutely hate being behind someone that won't let me play through. I'm tired of hearing, "There's a foursome in front of me." Yeah, well, they are also two holes, ahead and combine your skill level and set of tees your playing from, you won't be catching up any time soon.

I get over it, finally, by remembering that I want to play good golf and my wife, god bless her, is not in a rush to have me come home.

Still though, playing behind the aforementioned absolutely stinks.

[Webby]

So far the toughest part for me is choosing a set of clubs! Way too many choices and I haven't a clue. Just decided to play the game after 30 years. Back then a wood was a wood, now there are so many clubs and I don't want to buy something that will discourage me from attempting to play.

Webby

As a response to the previous post. Hopefully you won't get stuck behind me. I'm a rookie and will most likely be very slow. Sorry in advance.

[julie_m]

Getting over a bad shot, definitely. Teeing up and driving well after a bad hole. Getting out of bad putting slumps - since you really can't putt angry. Convincing myself I might be ok, nay, maybe even good, even if I send a shot wayward.

  marto97 said:

His answer was he was trying to SKIP the ball off the water onto the green!

Has that EVER worked?

[Stacey_E]

For me, it is slow play in my group. And I'm not really one to rant about slow play in general. I could care less about the pace of play as long as I get in somewhere around 4 hours. But when the guys in my group spend too much time looking for balls, hitting o.b., not playing ready golf, etc...it just breaks my stride. It's like being iced for a freethrow in basketball with about 6 timeouts!

[gogolfing]

Forgetting the bad shots from previous rounds and just focusing on the shot in front of me. I'm getting better, but it is still a struggle.

[zeg]

  julie_m said:

Has that EVER worked?

I watched a guy I was grouped with drive a four-skipper across the pond and land it in the middle of the fairway. Of course, he wasn't trying to, which I think is the key. If you try to do it on purpose, the golf gods punish your arrogance.

Hardest mental thing for me is getting over the accumulated negative experiences of my bad shots and just clearing my head and hitting the ball. In some sense, I'm a much better golfer than I was when I re-started playing a few months ago, but I have yet to see my scores improve because I still waste an ungodly number of shots every round. I think it's from having this ingrained fear of just hitting the ball and as a result don't trust my swing. When I stop worrying about it, I can hit the ball well. When I try to hit the ball well, I knock it 30 yards into the trees.

[microcrayfish]

I'm pretty easy going on the course so I don't get bothered by other people's actions. For me it's over thinking my shots and swing. I tend to fill my head with too many swing thoughts and end up messing things up.

[Pat007]

Definately slow play and not being let through. I have no problem telling my friends to pick up the pace, but the people in front never seem to get it. I've seen people with 2 free holes in front of them run to their balls not to let us through, which really pisses me off. The don't notice that they're backing up the course, because they never have to wait when they get on the tee box. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we've done putting and are just coming off the green as they're hitting their last tee shots. It completely throws me off my game, I can only keep my mind occupied for so long and tell so many jokes :)

[Snake]

  microcrayfish said:

I'm pretty easy going on the course so I don't get bothered by other people's actions. For me it's over thinking my shots and swing. I tend to fill my head with too many swing thoughts and end up messing things up.

Ditto. I can't tell you how many times I've stood over the ball thinking "back straight, head down, knees bent, arms relaxed, etc." only to slice or hook one into the next fairway. So then I get pissed off, tee up another ball and just swing (out of anger) without thinking and hit my best shot of the day - long, straight, right down the middle. UGH!

[yeis20]

NO question - mental agony associated to slow play.

[cigarnut81]

Pre Shot Routine is the hard part for me. I can not seem to repeat it.

[Wisconsin Golfer]

My hardest is a 3 way tie:
1) slow play in front of me
2) poor or non-existent etiquette
3) I tend to get in a hurry or swing to hard after a bad shot.

[bogeyhitter25]

Wow. Sabertooth we must be long-lost siblings. I feel the same way you do (especially slow play in front of me).

[AK jr.]

the biggest thing for me is pressure to do well. cuz i am probably going to play college golf so there is always that possibility that you have a really bad tournament or play bad while a coach is watching you. also just playing tournaments is full of pressure in itself cuz ur competing to win and in my situation, the winning score will be around 144-145, which is even or 1 over through 2 days

[Southpaw]

Getting my swing back.


Beginning of the summer I was hitting the ball so pure, and then my pull shot came back. I never recovered the entire summer(still haven't). Just having the motivation to practice and work it out has been tough.

[907golfer12]

  AK jr. said:

the biggest thing for me is pressure to do well.

A little full of yourself? How do you know that you are going to play. With a 4 index you won't even get looked at by a D-I school. You may get looked at by a D-III or NAIA. But best of luck none the less.

[pjsnyc]

Definitely slow play. I can't stand having to wait 20 minutes at each tee. It makes me a chain smoker, it forces me to cuss more than I would like, it makes me buy more $5 beers when the cart girl comes around for the umpteenth time, it just plain sucks.